Cricketers’ union: Counties don’t care about player welfare September 24, 2025 The Professional Cricketers’ Association has accused County Championship chairs of failing to prioritise player welfare after they rejected plans to streamline the competition. A long-running consultation on reducing the number of fixtures in the English game concluded yesterday without achieving the two-thirds majority support required. The proposals put to a vote were for the top [...]
European T20 Premier League: Is this cricket’s next growth market? September 16, 2025 When Italy’s men secured their historic qualification for next year’s T20 World Cup earlier this summer, the cheers reached all the way to India. Over in the subcontinent, a group backed by Bollywood royalty toasted the news as proof of their belief that European cricket is a largely untapped well of talent – and, more [...]
Joe Root piles pressure on cricket chiefs over Hundred format September 10, 2025 Joe Root has piled pressure on the England and Wales Cricket Board and the new Hundred owners to keep the competition’s format. While ECB bigwig Richard Thompson said the competition would remain 100 balls per innings, fewer than the 120 seen in Twenty20 competitions, the new franchise investors have been mulling a change to the [...]
Bollywood-backed European cricket league hires Oakvale Capital September 8, 2025 The Bollywood-backed European T20 Premier League (ETPL) has hired London-based investment bank Oakvale Capital as organisers look to launch next year. ETPL, a collaboration between the cricket boards of Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands, had been due to debut this summer but the plans were shelved at a few weeks’ notice. Organisers have now hired [...]
Paqueta phone celebration raises eyebrows at FA as judgement looms September 3, 2025 The Football Association is expected to publish the independent commission’s full judgement in the acquittal of Lucas Paqueta on spot-fixing charges imminently, days after spotting a possible double meaning in his goal celebration during West Ham’s win at Nottingham Forest on Sunday. After converting a penalty, the Brazilian mimed receiving a phone call and then [...]
Exclusive: England ready to halt cricket ODI over emergency alert test September 2, 2025 England’s cricket team are ready to pause their ODI match against South Africa on Sunday to observe the government emergency alert test, City AM can reveal. The UK government will be testing its alert systems, which will cause a loud noise on all 4G and 5G phones and tablets on Sunday at 3pm regardless of [...]
The Hundred can be cricket’s equivalent of Wimbledon, says chief September 1, 2025 English cricket chiefs want to see The Hundred become its equivalent of Wimbledon as the franchise competition heads for the biggest changes in its short history. The Hundred board, comprising new investors, meets today to discuss next steps, with a change in financial distributions, commercial deals, team names and the titular format all on the [...]
Hundred sees 600,000 tickets sold with TV audiences up September 1, 2025 Organisers of The Hundred sold nearly 600,000 tickets for this year’s competition, with viewing figures also up for the fifth edition of the controversial cricket format. The Northern Superchargers beat the Southern Brave in the women’s final on Sunday in a match that drew 22,000 fans at Lord’s in north London. The subsequent men’s final [...]
Are franchise IPOs the end game for The Hundred’s £1bn investors? August 28, 2025 Have The Hundred’s investors figured out yet how they will make a return? Look out for minority stake sales and maybe even listings in India, says Ed Warner. Never make an investment without having a plan on how to sell it. Illiquidity can scupper the most enticing of propositions. The very best portfolio managers, especially [...]
Ahead of the Game: Fifa eyes Morocco over Spain as 2030 World Cup HQ August 27, 2025 Fifa is in advanced discussions about basing the headquarters of the 2030 World Cup in the Moroccan capital Rabat. The centenary World Cup will be co-hosted by Morocco, Spain and Portugal, with the opening three games to be held in Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay in a nod to the competition’s roots. The 2026 World Cup [...]